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The simple, seven-ingredient recipe, which Kelly found in her grandmother’s recipe book, has rocketed to the top of Allrecipes’ rankings.

In the United States, Kelly’s recipe sits third on the all-time most-popular list.

In Canada, it’s number one.

According to Allrecipes, nearly 1.7 million Canadian cooks have clicked on Kelly’s recipe in the last three years.

Take a moment: Imagine how many pancakes have since been fried on a griddle, slathered with syrup and devoured on a weekend morning. That’s a mind-boggling amount of flapjacks.

Many home cooks who wrote reviews for “Good Old Fashioned Pancakes” — there are nearly 6,000 testimonials on Allrecipes.com — were wowed by the simplicity of the recipe. Those who had only ever made pancakes from a box raved about Kelly’s fluffy, tender pancakes and vowed never to return to a store-bought mix.

Esmee Williams, vice president of brand marketing at Allrecipes, says the site’s most popular recipes follow a similar formula: They appeal to a wide variety of home cooks, are made with affordable, easy-to-find ingredients, are simple to pull off and can be enjoyed by the whole family.

“Marry that together with member-shared photos and reviews, and you have removed any of the risk ... of whether that recipe will work for you,” says Williams from Allrecipes’ head office in Seattle. “You know exactly how it’s going turn out before you even turn on the stove.”

John Chandler’s cheesy, meaty creation has topped Allrecipes’ most-popular list (among American cooks) for more than a decade and has garnered some 12million page views in the last five years.

Among Canadian cooks who visit Allrecipes.com, the “World’s Best Lasagna” is less popular — but only slightly. It sits at number five on Allrecipes’ Canadian ranks, behind Kelly’s pancakes, “Best Chocolate Chip Cookies,” “Banana Banana Bread” and “Basic Crepes.”

Allrecipes.com, used by both American and Canadian cooks, has 10 million registered users between the two countries.

Williams says Allrecipes, which now claims to be the largest English-language food site in the world, was among the first to publish recipes by home cooks, rather than by professionals.

“Today, social media and user-generated content is commonplace,” she says. “But when our brand was first introduced, nobody was focused on user-generated content. Nobody was focused on everyday food.

“If you went on the web to look for recipes, you were far more likely to discover foodie-focused foods versus things that would be easy to prepare at home and well-liked by the whole family.”

In 2009, Allrecipes launched a site for French-speaking Canada.

Williams says the company wanted to provide home cooks in Quebec with “an authentic dialogue” that includes a “site experience in French and recipes that use ingredients found in local stores.”

In July, the Quebec site had 400,000 unique visitors. That same month, 2.5 million Canadians visited Allrecipes.com.

Dakota Kelly’s “Good Old Fashioned Pancakes” doesn’t crack the five most popular recipes on the Quebec site. Top honours in that province go to “Incroyable filet de porc a la mijoteuse” — or “Amazing Pork Tenderloin in the Slow Cooker” — followed by recipes for oven-roasted turkey, maple salmon, salmon potato pie and blueberry muffins.

At the Star’s request, Allrecipes analyzed its recipe ranks and provided the top five most popular recipes in the United States, English-speaking Canada and Quebec.

In the U.S., the top five most-popular recipes of all time are: Chandler’s lasagna, “Banana Banana Bread,” Kelly’s pancakes, “Easy Sugar Cookies” and “Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast.”

Ian Mosby, a food historian and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Guelph, says the top five recipes, whether posted in the U.S., Canada or Quebec, have a common denominator.

“They are all comfort foods,” he says. “Comfort foods are about nostalgia. And it makes sense that there would be cultural differences between what foods you would be nostalgic for, whether that’s in British Columbia or Quebec or the southern United States.”

Some comfort foods, though, probably transcend regional boundaries.

Banana bread, for example. Or slow-cooked, gravy-drizzled roasts. And old-fashioned pancakes made from scratch, made just like Dakota Kelly’s grandmother.

Jack Astor’s dessert update: In the previous column, published on Sept. 12, The Dish examined desserts at three popular chain restaurants.

One was the Elvis Donut, a doughnut dessert sandwich served with peanut butter mousse and whipped cream, among other decadent toppings, served at Jack Astor’s.

The Dish published nutrition numbers taken from Jack Astor’s website. Larisa Martinez, marketing manager for Jack Astor’s, says the company stands by the numbers.

“According to our recipes and the information we get from our supplies, the information on our website is correct,” she said.

However, several food fans and nutrition experts contacted the Star to say the numbers are likely incorrect. So The Dish is sending the dessert to an accredited laboratory for analysis.

Stay tuned for the laboratory results.

The recipes and the verdicts:

Home cooks searching online for recipes that are tasty and healthy have been able to find nutrition information on Allrecipes.com since 2004.

The company uses a nutritional database to analyze recipes submitted to the site.

But what does a nutrition expert think of Allrecipes’ two most popular recipes with Canadian cooks?

Registered dietitian Shannon Crocker weighs in on how she would tweak the recipes to make them healthier for her family.

Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

Dakota Kelly posted her grandmother’s recipe for “Good Old Fashioned Pancakes” on Allrecipes in 2008. “Judging from the weathered look of this recipe card, this was a family favourite,” Kelly wrote in the introduction.

The pancakes come together easily and puff up beautifully. I found them a tad salty, as did some Allrecipes’ members who wrote reviews on the site. But these old-fashioned pancakes do taste like the ones my mom made for our family on weekend mornings.

1-1/2 cups (355 mL) all-purpose flour

3-1/2 tsp (17 mL) baking powder

1 tsp (5 mL) table salt

1 tbsp (15 mL) granulated sugar

1-1/4 cups (300 mL) milk

1 egg

3 tbsp (45 mL) unsalted butter, melted

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter. Whisk until smooth.

Heat a griddle or frying pan over medium high heat, then brush with oil. When the griddle is hot, pour or scoop batter by 1/4 cup (60 mL) into onto griddle or pan. Cook until golden, about four minutes per side.

Makes approximately 8 pancakes.

Amazing Pork Tenderloin in the Slow Cooker

The cook who submitted her recipe for “Amazing Pork Tenderloin in the Slow Cooker” to Allrecipes.com claims the finished meal will “melt in your mouth.” Other cooks must agree since it has been “pinned” to Pinterest more than 17,000 times.

Preparing the roast for the slow cooker takes just minutes — a definite bonus for busy cooks. The pork has a subtle taste of red wine, but I found the meat to be overly salty.

1 pork tenderloin (about 32 oz/ 900 g)

1 envelope (28 g) dry onion soup mix

1 cup (250 mL) water

3/4 cup (185 mL) red wine

3 tbsp (45 mL) minced garlic

3 tbsp (45 mL) soy sauce

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Use a 6 quart (6 L) slow cooker. Set roast in the slow cooker and pour the dry soup mix on top.

In small bowl, whisk water, wine and soy sauce. Add to pork and turn well to coat.

Spread the minced garlic on top of the pork, then season with pepper.

Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

Transfer the pork to a serving platter. Pour the juices from the slow cooker into a gravy boat and serve with the pork.

“It’s higher in sodium than it needs to be. And since it uses all-purpose flour, there is very little fibre,” she says.

The good news is that a few ingredient swaps can easily make it healthier. Crocker suggests cutting the amount of salt in the recipe in half, using whole-grain flour, rather than all-purpose, and switching the butter for canola oil.

“I like to find ways to make my pancakes a little bit better by adding some bran or wheat germ and either a grated, small sweet potato, a mashed banana or a scoop of canned, pureed pumpkin.”

Dietitian’s Verdict: Crocker is a big fan of slow cooker meals, but this is a recipe that she would definitely change before feeding it to her family.

As is, the pork is just too salty from the soy sauce and onion soup mix. A generous slice of this pork contains about 900 milligrams of sodium — more than half of what your body needs in a day.

Crocker suggests cutting back on the soy sauce, since one tablespoon contains about 1,000 milligrams of sodium.

She also recommends cooks scrap the soup mix. Many store-bought mixes are loaded with salt and additives. Her alternatives? Layer fresh, sliced onions in the bottom of the slow cooker, or create your own onion mix using dried minced onion and onion powder.

“Those simple changes would make this a much healthier dish.”

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